The forum, which was supported through a grant from the Alliance for Early Success, was organized for the 49 members of the Senate, six of whom are newly elected, and the 98 members of the House, with 23 newly elected representatives. More than 40 participants, including advocates and experts, attended.

NCSL worked with members of the legislature and local stakeholders to plan the day’s agenda. The forum was an opportunity to focus attention on early learning policy options, discuss legislative accomplishments and consider potential goals for 2019 and beyond.

Governor Jay Inslee hosted a special breakfast for newly elected legislators at the governor’s residence to kick off the day and to share his administration’s early learning plan. Following breakfast, the meeting moved to the Hands on Children’s Museum where first lady Trudi Inslee opened the forum, and former House member, and longtime early learning and child welfare champion, Ruth Kagi outlined the agenda and kept the day on course.

Patricia Kuhl, co-director of the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, discussed early brain development, explaining that in the first years of life 1 million new neural connections form each second, and how language acquisition becomes increasingly more difficult as we age. Once the participants were all grounded in the science, attention shifted to the economic case for investing in early childhood.

Delivering the business rationale for high-quality early learning programs, Robert Dugger described The Heckman Curve, which shows the economic benefits of “investing early and building skill upon skill to provide greater success to more children and greater productivity and reduce social spending for society.” Many economists, including Nobel Laureate James Heckman and Dugger himself, argue that financing in the early years is a sound investment and a topic to be discussed

Gail Joseph who oversees Washington’s Early Achievers quality rating and improvement system for licensed child care and prekindergarten programs, explained that having high standards costs money but settling for less does not allow our youngest children to thrive and gain the skills to blossom into successful and productive adults.

In Washington, the Early Start Act became law in 2015 with some specific goals of improving access to high-quality early learning programs so all children arrive to school ready to learn. She continued by underscoring the importance of teacher-child interactions and the connection to improved child outcomes.